You know there are a lot of factors that go into you being successful with the shots you hit and none of them is more important than going through a really well constructed routine.

Today we're going to talk about the importance of a good shot making routine and kind of the do's and don'ts that hopefully are going to give you a better opportunity to execute some great shots.

Certainly for you to be successful with your golf shots, there are a couple things you need.

One is confidence in your decision.

I make a decision back behind the golf ball.

I take in all the factors I need.

I make sure that, that is a shot that I can commit to 100%.

If I can do that, great.

If not, I may want to do a couple of things.

One, away from the golf ball I can take what I call rehearsals, which is a swing that has that shot that I committed to in mind and I'm trying to get a really good feel for that.

If I can feel that shot in a rehearsal, I've got a really good chance of being able to repeat it once I get over the golf ball, that's going to really improve my confidence level.

Another way that I can do that is to simply get behind the golf ball and image exactly what it is I'm trying to do.

I can create this picture in my head of the actually going through this routine, swinging, hitting the shot, seeing the shot do what I want it to do.

Again, that's going to give me a lot of confidence.

The only other way that you're going to really build a lot of confidence is to simply get on the golf course or get on a driving range and hit those shots as many times it takes for you to have confidence in it and be comfortable with it.

Once you've done those things you can actually go through a really good shot making routine.

My shot making routine goes like this.

I always start about six feet behind the golf ball.

I make sure that I've got my target line picked out.

I've got a good image for me in my head of what I'm trying to do.

Now I've got a little something that I do to kind of make sure that my shot making routine is consistent.

That is, I draw what I call a magic circle.

From the golf ball I'll take my club and just with a three foot circle around this, that creates a six foot circle.

What that magic circle is about, I don't want to do anything inside that six foot circle, that magic circle except execute my shot.

I want to make sure that anything I need to do before I get in there and hit that shot, I do outside that circle.

If I'm going to take those rehearsal swings, I'm going to image the shot, whatever that is.

I'm going to do it out here.

Once I start toward the golf ball, I think it's really important that your time frame is extremely consistent from shot to shot.

If you get in here and your time frame is too short, you might rush this shot.

If you get in and you start thinking about what you're trying to do, I think that's going to interfere with your ability to really execute that shot as well.

As I get back here, my routine takes me about 11 seconds.

As I'm getting ready, as soon as I take a step I kind of time that and it starts with my grip.

I grip the club with the shot I have in mind.

As I set up to the golf ball, I'm going to have my grip, I work on my alignment.

I want to make sure I'm in a good dynamic posture and the acronym for that I use is GAP.

GAP, I don't want to leave any gaps in my routine.

As I grip the club, align myself, set up into a good posture, then the only thing I have left is to let my body take care of the shot that I committed to.

For me I focus on tempo, I GAP T to get a good solid routine.

Your routine doesn't have to be exactly the same as mine.

But I think it is critical that you develop a routine that you can repeat on a consistent basis.

Your time frame might be a little off.

The order that you do things might be a little different but the key to having a good shot making routine is your trying to take the brain out of it.

You grip the club, align yourself, get into a good posture and allow yourself to hit that shot without thinking.

As long as your focus stays inside the circle here instead of on the result of what you're trying to do, you're going to give yourself a little bit better opportunity to execute that shot that you committed to.

Have a little bit of fun with your shot making routine, mess around with it a little bit, time it, change the ingredients a little bit.

Find something that really works well for you.

But above all else make sure that you are very consistent with the way you do it on the driving range and your able to carry that over to the golf course.